BLOOMSBURG, Pa. — It was a crisp and windy October morning, the perfect atmosphere for a 5000m run.
The Bloomsburg University campus welcomed many spectators for the District IV Cross Country Championships, where the Lewisburg Green Dragons had a good showing.
Senior, Jonathan Hess, finished the course in 15:17, the fastest time at the meet. He helped Lewisburg to a first-place finish, the team finishing with a score of 46 and a State meet bid.
“I'm definitely with my performance, even though it wasn't a PR or anything,” said Hess. “It was still a fast time for being alone out there. It's not always easy to run by yourself. I tend to struggle pushing myself, but since I had a lead car today, I just tried to pretend the lead car was another person. I was just chasing him down,” he said.
Lewisburg’s Baylee Espinosa came in first in the Girls 2A race, also finishing with the fastest time of 18:17. Wellsboro Area’s Lauren Kosek was close behind Espinosa the entire race. The two pushed each other to their limits as they closed in on the finish line.
“I had goals that I think I was able to keep the first two miles,” said Espinosa. “Coach had changed- he pushed us very, very hard… he's like, let's try and match this exact same district time to the state's course time, which, I would think that's been a goal since the whole summer— which would be really cool to get to do,” said Espinosa.
In the 1A races, Northeast Bradford’s Creed Dewing finished first with a time of 16:06, helping his team to a first-place finish.
Claire Defrene, a junior out of Warrior Run, also helped her school to a first-place finish. The Defenders just edged out Northeast Bradford 42-43 to advance to the State Championships.
The State Championships takes place on Saturday, November 2nd in Hershey.